Official: Many Aswesuma beneficiaries handicapped without bank accounts

A significant number of people eligible for Aswesuma social security benefits do not have bank accounts and therefore the government failed to implement the initiative by 31 July as planned, a member of the Board of Directors of the Welfare Benefits Board Kamal Padmasiri says.

Padmasiri said, in a televised interview, on Thursday, that over 680,000 new accounts had been created by the end of July.There had been instances where the national identity card numbers were found to be duplicated, he said.

“Bank accounts have been duplicated. There are about 4,500 such accounts,” he said.

Padmasiri said they had asked for bank account numbers when the government called for applications for Aswesuma benefits. Some people had given bank accounts of their children and money could not be withdrawn from them until the account holders turned 18 years.

“There have also been issues with data entry. We make fund transfers straight to the banks and need accurate data. If we deposit money in wrong accounts that could essentially be a violation of financial regulations,” he said.

A large number of people who applied for benefits had been under the impression that they would receive cash and in late July and even early August a large number of people had queued up near banks to open accounts, Padmasiri said.

“Some people said we could use the Samurdhi bank to distribute money. The Central Bank said we must use banks that had the ability to process cheques. So, we could only use commercial banks. But a large number of people didn’t open accounts. Over 680,000 out of two million waited until late July to open accounts at selected state banks. There were long lines opposite banks, overwhelming the banking staff. Some people furnished wrong NIC numbers and there were issues with data entry. We do direct transfers and we need good data,” Padmasiri said, noting that Aswesuma payments could be made for everyone from next week.

According to the scheme, the selected beneficiaries will receive Rs. 15, 000, Rs. 8, 500, and Rs. 5,000 from the four selected state banks, the Regional Development Bank (RDB), National Savings Bank (NSB), Bank of Ceylon (BOC) and the People’s Bank.

“In about 10 days, we will be able to finalise data and tell people the number of total beneficiaries and the categories they are in, etc.,” he said.

Padmasiri said that there had been over 217,000 appeals. However, given that there were over 340 divisional secretariats, sorting out these appeals would not take a lot of time, he said. (RK)